World Championship 2010

[Jonathan Rogers]

Well, ..Bxb4 certainly hastened the end and made it easier too - many of us on this forum might have converted from that point onwards. But I can believe that ...Ne3 was the real culprit.

I like to think that at that moment Topalov was thinking "what has happened here? Surely I have been doing well, and I must have a good opportunity still , but I cannot see it ... surely he's not expecting to win this, though? But dammit, I ridiculously promised the world that I would not offer a draw - well, I'll play the only active move which I can think of, namely ...Ne3" ...

[Mike Gunn]

Alex, I thought that whole idea was laughed out of court? You either have copyright in something or you don't. Delaying publishing something because of a claim of copyright has no logic in it.

[Alex Holowczak]

Well, I agree, but it was just my guess. I'm pretty sure I read that Danailov had announced that only the official website could broadcast the game live. Perhaps he meant the video stream of the players making the moves, rather than the actual game.

[Alex Holowczak]

Specifically, it was this scary-sounding warning:

"All copyright, trade marks, design rights, patents and other intellectual property rights (registered and unregistered) in and on www.anand-topalov.com and all content (including all applications) located on the site shall remain vested in the Bulgarian Chess Federation or its licensors. You may not copy, reproduce, republish, disassemble, decompile, reverse engineer, download, post, broadcast, transmit, make available to the public, or otherwise use www.anand-topalov.com content in any way except for your own personal, non-commercial use. You also agree not to adapt, alter or create a derivative work from any www.anand-topalov.com content except for your own personal, non-commercial use. Any other use of www.anand-topalov.com content requires the prior written permission of the Bulgarian Chess Federation."

[Mike Gunn]

Perhaps the word "respect" is the key to understanding this. Kirsan will come round and break Malcolm's legs if he lets Mark put up the moves too quickly?

[Alex Holowczak]

Who knows...

But on the bright side, the full game can be downloaded. The game appears to be there now, complete with annotations: http://www.chess.co.uk/twic/chessnews/e ... hip-game-2

[David Sedgwick]

Perhaps the word "respect" is the key to understanding this. Kirsan will come round and break Malcolm's legs if he lets Mark put up the moves too quickly?

More to the point, I imagine, is this quote from Malcolm in another thread:

As yet I have not signed any contract with FIDE [regarding the World Championship 2012] but I do have the option and go to Sofia shortly to try and progress.

If I were in Malcolm's position, I wouldn't wish to cause needless antagonism either.

It's not as though anyone's being deprived or disadvantaged by the delay in posting the moves on TWIC. There's perfectly adequate free live coverage on the official site, to which TWIC has a link.

[TomChivers]

Pretty good pair of games so far; one sacrificial, one positional. Topalov looks as powerful and well-prepared with white as ever; Anand doing a Kramnik impersonation when he has white seems like it might be effective.

What are the odds on 6-6 and no draws?

[Roger de Coverly]

Here's a piece which tries to make something of Topalov's reluctance to offer draws.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/ches ... ament.html

A couple of thoughts on this :-

I think the sequence play move, offer draw, press clock dates back to Bronstein who objected to Botvinnik and others offering draws when he was deep in thought. The convention of not making repeated draw offers if the position is mostly unchanged presumably dates back to the same era.

There have been matches in the past where players have been reluctant to talk to each other directly and insisted that all draw offers go through the arbiter. The name Korchnoi springs to mind in this context although I suspect there have been others.

[Jonathan Rogers]

Slav today, following Topalov v Kramnik m game 6 or 7 (or even both, can't remember for sure).

It's interesting that Anand seems to be following the main defences of Topalov's last two match opponents. Kamsky drew two games with the Grunfeld line which Anand played in game one, and to which he probably does not intend to return; and now he is following Kramnik's recipe! So he has less space, and an inactive bishop with no visible counterplay - but at least the queens are off and he can hope to ease the pressure with further exchanges. We shall see! Not really his style, though.

[TomChivers]

Alex, I thought that whole idea was laughed out of court? You either have copyright in something or you don't. Delaying publishing something because of a claim of copyright has no logic in it.

Isn't that how copyright works though? Copyrights do expire after a certain time, and the previously copyrighted work enters the public domain. I think patents are similar. Maybe there is a case for organizers to own a one day copyright of all chess moves, so they can either attract spectators to their website, or license coverage elsewhere?

Btw, I agree with Jonathan Rogers's comments about today's game. Also whilst I can imagine Anand doing a Kramnik impersonation with white indefinitely, I can't see him pulling off the same thing as black.

[Adam Raoof]

Alex, I thought that whole idea was laughed out of court? You either have copyright in something or you don't. Delaying publishing something because of a claim of copyright has no logic in it.

Isn't that how copyright works though? Copyrights do expire after a certain time, and the previously copyrighted work enters the public domain. I think patents are similar. Maybe there is a case for organizers to own a one day copyright of all chess moves, so they can either attract spectators to their website, or license coverage elsewhere?

I don't think it will ever be possible to copyright moves. However it is possible to embargo the transmission of moves, either technically or with the goodwill and cooperation of others. Once they are in the public domain, that is exactly where they remain! Personally I think that it is in everyone's best interest for that to remain the situation.

[Carl Hibbard]

Anyone relaying the 4NCL games from my servers during the weekend will be made to stand in the corner

[Alex Holowczak]

Isn't that how copyright works though? Copyrights do expire after a certain time, and the previously copyrighted work enters the public domain. I think patents are similar.

Patents expire after a maximum of 20 years.

The maximum duration of a copyright is 70 years after the death of the creator.

[Adam Raoof]

Anyone relaying the 4NCL games from my servers during the weekend will be made to stand in the corner

It would never cross my mind. How does one do that, though, technically?